The challenge for historians, as for individuals and nations, has been to make sense of the Cold War past without recourse to the obsolete frameworks of a dichotomous world. The editors of Seeking Meaning, Seeking Justice in the Post-Cold War World, Judith Keene and Elizabeth Rechniewski, have brought together contributions that address the diverse modes by which the Cold War is being assessed, with a major focus on countries on the periphery of the Cold War confrontation. These approaches include developments in historiography as new intellectual and cultural frame are applied to old debates. Authors also consider the ‘universal’ principles and moral discourses, including that of human rights, on which judgements have been based and judicial processes instigated; and the forms of memorialisation that have sought to come to terms, and perhaps achieve reconciliation, with a Cold War past.

Contributors are: Ann Curthoys, Philip Deery, Katherine Hite, Michael Humphrey, Su-kyong Hwang, Perry Johansson, Judith Keene, Betty O'Neill, Peter Read, Elizabeth Rechniewski, Estela Valverde, Adrian Vickers and Marivic Wyndham